With Montreal clothing label, Wide the Brand, Mahrzad Lari hopes to create a space for people like him to access the transformative power of clothing
Last month, in a gala ceremony in downtown Montreal, Mahrzad Lari was feted as one of Quebec’s most exciting new fashion talents., was humbled by the prize, which came with a $105,000 grant. It was awarded by fashion development non-profit Metropolitan Fashion Cluster to recognize his work in the realm of diversity and inclusion.
To understand why Wide is such a ground-breaking brand, consider the experience of many of their customers. Lari says that all the brand’s pieces, such as the items modelled above, are designed with both fashion and function in mind.“We focus on [recognizing] a frustration and finding a high fashion solution to it,” Lari says. For example, their dress shirts are designed to slip on over the head, with only three buttons down the front.
While style matters, function is also key, often informed by Lari’s own day-to-day experiences. “The inside of our puffer jacket is completely designed in jersey, because I know that as a plus-sized man, I tend to get hotter in the winter, so I didn’t want nylon that didn’t breathe,” he says. “It’s a very emotional thing for guys to find pieces they love,” explains Lari, referencing an e-mail from a client he’d just received, accompanied by some images of him wearing Wide. “He went to a Christmas party, and he said it was the first time in his life that he’d felt attractive.”The goal of Wide is to create a space for people just like him to access the transformative power of clothing, Lari says.
“For the last 10 to 15 years, we’ve been seeing a huge evolution with women and the body positivity movement, but the same hasn’t followed for men,” he says. “Deep down, there is still this notion that for a man to be considered attractive, he has to be muscular and strong.”
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